A conventional crimping apparatus that has mechanisms that adjust the crimp heights for a core and an insulating coating of a wire when a terminal is crimped onto the core and the insulating coating (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-6849, for example).
However, the crimping apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-6849 has a problem. Specifically, operating the crimp height adjustment mechanism for a core and the crimp height adjustment mechanism for an insulating coating involves additional operations, such as loosening of a predetermined fastened part, so that it takes time to adjust the crimp heights.
Thus, in order to solve this problem, a crimping apparatus has been proposed that has two dials for operating the two adjustment mechanisms (see Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 7-27086, for example).
FIG. 1 is a front view of the essential parts of the crimping apparatus described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 7-27086.
A crimping apparatus 1 described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 7-27086 has, on the front thereof, dials 40, 50 for operating the crimp height adjustment mechanism for a core and the crimp height adjustment mechanism for an insulating coating and includes a prime mover section that produces a force required for crimping and an applicator 20 that achieves crimping of a terminal using the force produced by the prime mover section.
FIG. 1 shows an applicator 20 and a press ram 11 that is a component of the prime mover section which transmits the force produced by the prime mover section to the applicator 20.
The applicator 20 is composed of a machine casing 21, an anvil unit 22 and a base 23. A pair of vertical rails 24 is fixed to the machine casing 21, and an oscillation beam 26 is supported on the machine casing 21 by a shaft 26a. A tool ram 25, which crimps a terminal onto a stripped part 30a of a wire 30 (see FIG. 2) in cooperation with the anvil unit 22, is guided by the vertical rails 24 to move up and down.
The tool ram 25 is connected to the press ram 11 described above and has a cam roller 25b supported on a side section 25a thereof by a shaft 25c, and the cam roller 25b is fitted into a cam groove 26b formed in the oscillation beam 26. Thus, when the tool ram 25 moves up and down, the oscillation beam 26 oscillates about the shaft 26a. A plate 28 is attached to a lower part of the oscillation beam 26, and a feeding claw 27, whose tip end engages with chained terminals n placed behind a terminal guide rail 23a, is supported on the plate 28 by a shaft 27b. 
The press ram 11 has a standard dial 111 that adjusts the bottom dead center of a bottom end 11a. 
FIG. 2 is a side view of the essential parts of the crimping apparatus shown in FIG. 1.
A terminal n1 shown in FIG. 2 is composed of a contact part n11, an insulation barrel n12 for holding the coating 31 of the wire 30, and a wire barrel n13 for holding a core 32 of the wire 30. Multiple terminals n1 are connected to a carrier n14 to constitute the chained terminals n. A crimper section 25d of the tool ram 25 shown also in FIG. 1 is composed of a cut-off punch 251d, an insulator crimper 252d for crimping the insulation barrel n12, and a wire crimper 253d for crimping the wire barrel n13.
In this crimping apparatus 1, operation of a feeding claw 27 causes the terminal n1, which is the closest to the anvil unit 22 of the plural chained terminals n, to be placed on the anvil unit 22. Then, when the wire 30 with an end at which a stripped part 30a is previously formed is placed on the terminal n1 on the anvil unit 22, the press ram 11 moves downward, and the tool ram 25 connected to the press ram 11 is guided by the vertical rails 24 to move downward. Then, the tool ram 25 and the anvil unit 22 cooperate to cut a bridge part n15, which connects the terminal to the carrier n14, and crimp the terminal n1, separated from the chained terminals n, onto the stripped part 30a. When the crimping is completed and the tool ram 25 begins to move upward, the cam roller 25b also moves upward along the cam groove 26b in the oscillation beam 26, and thus, the oscillation beam 26 oscillates about the shaft 26a counterclockwise. This movement causes the feeding claw 27 to place a terminal, which is the closest to the anvil unit 22 of the chained terminals n, on the anvil unit 22 along the terminal guide rail 23a. 
As shown in FIG. 2, the anvil unit 22 is composed of a floating shear 221 having a groove cutting edge 221a, an insulation anvil 222 and a wire anvil 223. When the tool ram 25 moves downward guided by the vertical rails 24, the bridge part n15 of the terminal n1 on the anvil unit 22 is cut by the cut-off punch 251d and the groove cutting edge 221a of the floating shear 221, and the insulation barrel n12 is crimped onto the coating 31 of the wire 30 by the insulation crimper 252d and the insulation anvil 222. In addition, the wire barrel n13 is crimped onto the stripped core 32 of the wire 30 by the wire crimper 253d and the wire anvil 223.
Here, in the crimping apparatus 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the crimp heights for the core and the coating are adjusted by changing the bottom dead centers of the wire crimper 253d and the insulation crimper 252d, respectively, by use of a lower dial 40 and an upper dial 50 after the adjustment by the standard dial 111 provided in the press ram. In FIGS. 1 and 2, the upper dial 50 is for the wire crimper and the lower dial 40 is for the insulator crimper.
There are various types of wires according to their applications. For example, in the crimping apparatus described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 7-27086, when terminal crimping is to be performed for multiple kinds of wires the coating diameter of which differs greatly though the core diameter thereof is the same, it may sometimes become impossible to adapt to various kinds of wires if only the adjustment of the bottom dead center of the insulation crimper by the turning of the dial 40 for the insulation crimper is performed.
In view of such circumstances, the present invention has as its object the provision of a crimping apparatus that can adapt widely to various diameters of the insulating coatings of wires.